Inward Renewal

The Bible reading plan I’m using right now gives me four passages of Scripture to read from each day.  A few days ago, I started in on 2 Chronicles.  So far it’s been a very convicting read… so much so that I can’t get chapter twelve off my mind.  From the twelfth chapter comes a haunting account of divine jealousy in response to the faithlessness of the northern kingdom of Judah.  Check it out:

“Soon after Rehoboam had control of his kingdom, he and everyone in Judah stopped obeying the LORD. So in the fifth year of Rehoboam’s rule, the LORD punished them for their unfaithfulness and allowed King Shishak of Egypt to invade Judah. Shishak attacked with his army of one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand cavalry troops, as well as Egyptian soldiers from Libya, Sukkoth, and Ethiopia. He captured every one of the fortified cities in Judah and then marched to Jerusalem. Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah had gone to Jerusalem to escape Shishak’s invasion. And while they were there, Shemaiah the prophet told them, “The LORD says that because you have disobeyed him, he has now abandoned you. The LORD will not help you against Shishak!” Rehoboam and the leaders were sorry for what they had done and admitted, “The LORD is right. We have deserted him.” When the LORD heard this, he told Shemaiah: The people of Judah are truly sorry for their sins, and so I won’t let Shishak completely destroy them. But because I am still angry, he will conquer and rule them. Then my people will know what it’s like to serve a foreign king instead of serving me. Shishak attacked Jerusalem and took all the valuable things from the temple and from the palace, including Solomon’s gold shields. Rehoboam had bronze shields made to replace the gold ones, and he ordered the guards at the city gates to keep them safe. Whenever Rehoboam went to the LORD’s temple, the guards carried the shields. But they always took them back to the guardroom as soon as he had finished worshiping. Rehoboam turned back to the LORD, and so the LORD did not let Judah be completely destroyed, and Judah was prosperous again. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled seventeen years from Jerusalem, the city where the LORD had chosen to be worshiped. His mother Naamah was from Ammon. Rehoboam was a powerful king, but he still did wrong and refused to obey the LORD.
(2 Chronicles 12:1-14)

Tragically, the chapter opens with… “Soon after Rehoboam had control of his kingdom, he and everyone in Judah stopped obeying the LORD.” As any king should do upon taking office, Rehoboam works hard to build a united kingdom.  But he soon gets too comfortable and began drifting away from the law of the Lord…. and everyone else in Judah follows his lead.

God responds by shifting his instrument (King Shishak of Egypt) into place – allowing him to invade Judah. In an attempt to escape the invasion, Rehoboam flees to Jerusalem where the prophet Shemaiah anounces to him how his disobedience is the reason for the invasion.  What’s more devastating is that God abandons them and refuses to help.  How fearful Rehoboam must have been to face the anger of God in light of his complete failure.

God’s jealous love for His people burned so bright that now his anger also burns.  The text reveals something interesting in that Rehoboam admits that he and the people have deserted Jehovah.  We’ve not been privy to the dialogue that God must have been having, but when the leaders say “The LORD is right.  We have deserted Him” it’s as if God had been making the case that He had been deserted.  The people deserted God…first.

God’s anger eases when Rehoboam humbles himself and the people are sorry for their sins.  But… His anger still burns.  When I first read this, I was so calloused to the holiness of God that my first feeling was that God was being unjust in not pardoning them completely from the consequences of their sin.  Instead, we read that God puts an excalmation mark on the situation by permitting Shishak to conquer and rule them but not utterly destroy them.  He does this so that: “then my people will know what it’s like to serve a foreign king instead of serving me.”

This is certainly a hard teaching when I work it out practically for my own life.  With my heart being just as wicked and way-word as the people of Judah, the Lord might let me to follow my own way such that I serve other kings who rule over me brutally.  What’s interesting is that this is an expression of the loving discipline of my heavenly father in order that: “my people will know what it’s like to serve a foreign king instead of serving me“  Personally, I’ve served other kings before and they are BRUTAL.  I know what it’s like.

Jesus is King and the question is whether His people will honor Him as such.  In the case of Rehoboam, the passage indicates that he turned back to the Lord and so the Lord did not allow Judah to be completely destroyed.  And so that’s the end of the story….. right?  Well, a few verses later we read about the prosperity of Judah and that Rehoboam again becomes powerful… but he still did wrong and refused to obey the LORD. The ending is predictable because its the storyline of all of our lives.

This Christmas season, we must decide whether we want to know what it’s like to serve a foreign king or whether we want to know the service of king Jesus.  Jesus himself says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  May God grant me and my household mercy to serve the Lord.

In our neighborhood, any time we get rain we almost certainly will have a blackout.  It’s just an expected reality of living here, so the quicker one learns to accept it the more tranquil life becomes.  I can say that our family has long ago accepted the frequent power outages, but we still have to have a backup game plan for cooking, baths for the kids etc…  For the better part of a week we haven’t received the predictable afternoon rains, but late this afternoon that all changed.  What started as sprinkles turned into a downpour.  Stan (my father-in-law) and I prepared the grill under a tree and suspended card board above the hot coals until they were glowing hot.  The chicken wings went on and sizzled in the early evening rain to perfection.  By the time Donna (my mother-in-law) and Andrea cooked green beans and mashed potatoes over the petrol camping stove, the house was dark.  But that was okay because we have a huge supply of candles that are ready to go for evenings like this.  The dinner was nice and the food was hot.  Candle light dinners are so commonplace for Andrea and I that we’re not that interested in a candle-lit romantic dinner like we used to be. They’re just another component of evening in Africa.

Ireen is so excited!  She just got her hair plaited (braided with extensions).  Thankfully, I have a friend named Grace who was able to come to our house in order to do Ireen’s hair. I say “thankfully” because it takes about 6 hrs to do all of Ireen’s hair .  Ireen has learned to enjoy getting her hair done while watching some of her favorite movies.

A few weeks ago I created a new addition for our yard.  From a bamboo stand nearby, I harvested 3 very tall bamboo stalks and then got to work on creating my first arbor.  I’ve visualized installing an arbor with hanging plants for almost a year, but until recently I hadn’t decided where I would place it.  It seemed to fit most naturally in a place that seemed empty and uninteresting.  So, I built it to span the walkway from our front door to the vehicle.

The structure is rudimentary of course.  Nevertheless, I thought the arbor needed a sitting bench.  We didn’t have the budget for something pre-made, so I bought a stone slab from Leopard’s Hill Rd. (where all the stone is shipped from Siavonga) and put one together myself.  I finally located some 80% shade cloth to shield the hanging plants from the brutal African sun.  Eventually the arbor will be covered with a fast-growing, flowering creeper.  But until then, the ferns and succulents will survive under the shade cloth.

Here are a few pictures of progress made on the first of two drainage ditches we’re installing out at Ciyanjano.  The drainage work will be a vast improvement so that the new fence line doesn’t get damaged with heavy rains.

December is the month for Action Zambia to officially kick off its Leadership Retreat Center.  In preparation for our first group (who will be on site for two weeks) Megan, Tracy and I have been working hard to get things in order.  We purchased 7 more sets of bunk beds to give us a total capacity of 30 beds.  Each bed needed a mattress, so I borrowed a lorry to transport 14 of them.  Mosquito nets, plastic mugs, plates and chairs were also purchased so the initial setup became costly very quickly.  But the investment made is worth it because of the need that local pastors have for retreat facilities.  Most pastors that we work with feel tired and long for a place of tranquility where they can meet with their church leadership.  More pictures of the bunk house facilities are below.

We had the pleasure of Rhoda’s company for a few days.  She is the adoptive daughter (or in progress) of the Allens.  Ireen was super excited to have a friend spend the night and she played the role of older sister well!  While Rhoda did miss her sisters, I think Ireen was a good distraction.  The pictures are of story time before bed and a little photo shoot Sunday morning before church.

Seven years ago on Dec7,2002 this handsome couple was married at New City Fellowship church in Chattanooga TN.  Since then, they’ve had a wonderful seven years – very full of life.  They happen to still be very much in love!

We don’t know if it’s just us but it seems like there’s an excessive amount of houseflies this season.  Even with screens over our windows we kill fifteen flies in our house everyday. Then, when we eat outside, they swarm us in a terrible way.

Andrea asked me to pick up a loaf of bread for sandwiches.  On my way home I stopped by the Castle bakery and got one that had come right out of the oven.  By the time I got home Andrea had already started making lunch preparations so naturally she needed the bread right away.  When she pulled the bread out of it’s plastic sleeve she found a fly embedded in the bread.

Apparently the bakery is having problems with the fly population too.  The fly must have gotten stuck in the dough and then got baked that way.  Anyway, our family has decided not to take vitamin supplements anymore – we’ll just stick with the vitamin fortified Castle bread.  Besides, it’s cheaper….

In several posts now we’ve mentioned how the seasonal rains affect life here.  Electricity power outages are a lot more frequent for us in our area.  So, we’ve pulled out our candle supply and have everything ready to go so that we can see what we’re doing at the drop of a hat.  Ian is interested in the candle glow and we’ve caught him more than once approaching the candle to touch it.  When we reprimand him, he thinks it’s a game as you can see in the pictures below.